F129 
.S74C3 













1^ .♦ 



>o9 



>°-nK 




•*^o< 







.* ^0 






















o. ♦ 















*. 










k* "^rv Cl* ♦ ' 



<• -• 

















0* tt"^"*^ o 



L^^ .-^ 









"•^^0* 
^^°^ 



V^*> %*^*/ V^*y "-. 






'■„/.,...% "^'^<^ 




•^*„ c* 






















'^ ^^ ^ 




^^0^ 



.^^^ 




^o^ 


















HISTORICAL SKETCH 



or 



SQUTHOLD TOWN, " 

READ JULY ^th, 1876, 

A'J- THE CELEBRATION HELD IN GREENPORT, L. I., 
BY THE AUTHOR, 

ALBERTSON CASE, Esg, 

TOWN CLERK. 



Carefully Re vised and Corrected. 



K\\ 1876. 



0/ vv&sH^^** y 



GREKNl'ORT 




D. O. CRAWFORD, Printer. 
1876. 



r^rr^, 



To THE Public. 



The following sketch was written in great haste for the pur- 
pose of reading before an out-door assembly. In preparing it 
my chief aim was to catch the ear of my audience by the recital 
of a few details which would be most likely to secure attention 
because of their personal and local nature. As a consequence, 
it makes no pretensions to the dignity and requirements of a 
complete history. This explanation seems proper now that the 
sketch is to be published, and exposed to that severer criticism 
which printed words always receive. It claims no merit beyond 
a careful attempt at accuracy of statement. 

It is but justice to add that I am indebted for a large part of 
the facts which I have related to my father, J. Wickham Case, 
whose acquaintance with the history of the Town is far supe- 
rior to mine. ALBP:RTS0N CASE. 

Southold, July 7th, 1876. 



Fe/ioic Timmsmen : In this interval of rest from the active 
diversions and recreations of the day it has been appointed that 
I should tell you something of the story of this, our Town of 
Southold. 

Its first settlement was in the year 1640, but it is necessary 
that we should go a little back of that date, in order to learn 
the cause of the settlement an*d the character of the men who 
made it. 

All the leading nations of Western Europe, in the century 
succeeding the discovery of America, sent out numerous ex- 
ploring parties to search out the mysteries of the New World 
and secure a foothold on its shores. Colonies were formed 
and settlements attempted. England had a brave and hardy 
race of seamen, and captains and admirals burning with a 
chivalrous thirst for deeds of exploit. In the latter half of the 
1 6th century the great Elizabeth sat on the English throne, 
and her proud ambition fostered and animated the colonizing 
enterprises of her navigators. After her came the 17th cen- 
tury and the Stuarts. The first half of that century was a not- 
able era in English histor3^ 

It began in aggressive assaults by James upon the civil, 
social and religious rights of his subjects. It ended in civil 
w^ar, the beheading of Charles, and the- protectorate of Crom- 
well. The Stuarts were egotistical theorists, despotic and ob- 
stinate, and broke their promises of justice to the people more 
easily than they gave them. On the other hand, the people 
were deeply stirred by religious matters. There was great 
controversy going on in respect to doctrine, and they were im- 
bued with the strongest religious convictions. There were 
numerous sects and orders outside of the Established Church. 
The Stuarts made bitter war upon all shades of Nonconform- 
ists. The exercise of religious freedom became difficult and 
Persecution was followed by resistance, and the 



Puritan found in his King an enemy rather than a protector. 
Hence many, tired of the turmoil and troubles at home, sought 
in New England a shelter vrhere they might obey the dictates 
of their own consciences. There they settled and organized 
colonies conformed to their religious, social and civil ideas. 

Southold was settled in September or October, 1640, by a 
number of Puritans of the New Haven colony, who came from 
New Haven with their families. It was in eflfect the founding 
of a church community. The Rev. John Youngs, their pastor, 
properly appears to have been its leader. He was certainly 
Qne of the first settlers. Just who the others were no one now 
living can positively say. Probably Barnabas Horton, Thomas 
Mapes, Peter Hallock and [perhaps] Lieutenant John Budd 
were of the number. Richard Jackson had a dwelling-house in 
1640, whose exact location cannot be fixed, but it is thought to 
have stood west of Greenport, somewhere on the farm now 
owned by the heirs of William Y. Brown, deceased. So we 
are sure that he was a first settler. Mr. Griffln in his Journal, 
which is so well known as a pleasant compendium of local his- 
tory and old time gossip, gives us a list of thirteen whom he 
says were the first settlers. Without any derogation of the 
honesty of the venerable and amiable author, we are forced to 
pronounce his account an incorrect tradition. Several of the 
parties whose names he gives were living in other places at 
that time, and did not come to Southold till several years sub- 
sequent. 

Pastor Youngs and his party located the present town street 
and built their dwellings upon it. The line of the main street 
probably ran about as it does now. Also the street to the 
head of the creek ; the road to the North Sea, as it was then 
called, which now goes by the Railroad Depot, and the present 
Horton's Lane. Their dwellings in a few years lined the main 
street from the bridge at the run on the West, to the head of 
the harbor lane on the East. Constant accessions and addi- 
tions of new settlers were occurring in the years mimediately 
following the first settlement. Of those first years the town has 
no official record. There was a book of records covering that 



5- 

time as appears from the records still in existence, but no one 
knows aught of it now. 

Liber A of our Town Records begins with the date i6ii, and 
quite naturally the record of each man's home, lot and out 
lands is the first subject embraced in the book. These home 
lots were allotted among the settlers, and most of them are de- 
scribed as containing four acres, more or less. Some of the 
later allotments were subject to the condition that the grantee 
should build upon them within three years. 

This is the way the record begins: "Anno Domini, 1651. 
Breefe records of all the inhabitants accommodations herein, as 
followeth Vidlt, Impris. The Reverend Mr. John Youngs, 
Pastor of the Church of Christ in Southold, aforesaid, his 
home lot, with the meadow thereunto adjoyninge, conteyning by 
estimation seaven acres, more or less, bounded," &c. This 
lot fronted on the main street — where Joseph H. Goldsmith, 
Esq., now lives. The next entry is that of William Wells, "the 
Lawyer." His was a lot of four acres — where the hotel stands 
to-day. In like manner the lots of the other settlers are given ; 
the entries continuing down until after 1660. The present lo- 
cation of nearly all of them is now known. Col. John Youngs' 
was located where Richard L. Peters lives ; Barnabas Horton 
had two lots on the opposite corners of Horton's Lane ; John 
Budd's was where Jonathan W. Huntting Uves ; Israel Peck's 
place was John Booth's home lot; Barnabas H. Booth lives on 
John Tucker's lot; the home lot of Thomas Mapes is now that 
of Gilder S. Conklin : Richard Benjamin lived at about the 
head of the present street to Jockey Creek; Joseph Horton's 
lot was near the house now owned by Captain Benjamin Cole; 
Philemon Dickerson's was the present residence of Hiram 
Terry ; Mathias Corwin's was near the now residence of David 
Jennings; the lot of Barnabas Wynes, sen., now belongs (in part 
at least) to Charles A. Case; Thomas Terry's "whom lot lying 
next to the bridge at the West end of the Towne " is now Pat- 
rick May's ; Thomas Moore's lot was where William Y. Fithian 
lives; John Conkling, sen., had his lot opposite the present 
Methodist Church; Captain John Underbill had the lot next 



6. 

AVest on the hill which the Southold Savings Bank owns; Henry 
Case's lot was near the present residence of Mrs. Beulah Gold- 
smith, and Charles Glover's lot was off the street and at the 

creek, upon land now owned by Stevenson. 

. It seems to have been a fixed design that the settlers should 
dwell in close proximity. Probably this was for their better 
defense, and to enjoy greater neighborliness in their new situa- 
tion. While they gained these results, it was at the expense of 
time nnd convenience in getting to their farm lands. Still, it 
was a custom among Long Island settlers, as witness South and 
East Hamptons. 

By 1660 there were at least fifty home lots with their dwell- 
ings in the settlement. Of those first erected probably not one 
now stands. We are led to imagine them as rude structures. 
Indeed the limited resources of their builders must have com- 
pelled them to live in plain houses. A vote, passed in 1652 at 
Town Meeting, gives us a broad hint that their roofs were of 
thatch, for it was then ordered that every inhabitant provide 
himself with a ladder sufficient to reach the top of his house. 

The main street ran through the woods. January 5, 1657, it 
was ordered that every inhabitant should take up and carry 
away all trees and roots of trees standing in front of his home 
lot before the last day of March of that year, under forfeiture 
of \2d. for every stump left standing. 

Measures of a sanitary nature were also adopted. Creatures 
'dying " which were carrion," as the record has it, were directed 
to be buried by their owners within one day after notice given. 

Every man finding cattle trespassing was empowered to im- 
pound them. Twenty shillings was ordered to be paid to the 
Indians by the Town Treasurer for every old wolf killed, and 
ten shillings for every young one. 

The town was a law unto itself. P^very voter at Town Meet- 
ing was a legislator. The government of the Town was the 
most simple form of Democracy ; and, as if it were made nee- 
essary by absenteeism, provision was made that every voter 
should attend the Town Meetings, and for a failure to comply 
therewith a fine was fixed. Possibly this is a fresh proof that 



7- 

there is "nothing new under the sun," and that the present pop- 
ular cry that the best men keep out of public affairs was as true 
two hundred years ago as to-day. 

AVhen our ancestors entered into possession of these lands 
it was with the purpose of tiiling the soil. They found mostly 
woodlands and salt meadows. It is curious to note how they 
portioned off the lands among themselves. Here and there 
was an arable field ; this they would divide into small parcels 
of one and two acres, so that it might afford a share for each. 
Such, for instance, was the " old Field " of about 60 or 70 acres, 
lying on the bay, a mile or so to the East of the settlement. 
As its soil is even yet full of clam and oyster shells, it was 
probably the site of an Indian village, and had been kept 
cleared of woods by the Indians, and planted by them. This 
" old field " was surrounded by the settlers by a general fence, 
a certain portion of which each owner in the field was com- 
pelled to make, according to the size of his lot therein. 

So, too, they made great account of the salt meadows. Al- 
most every settler had from one to four acres in the different 
meadows at Oysterponds, Southold, Hog Neck, Cutchogue, and 
even as far as Aquebogue and the South side of the river, at 
the head of Peconic Bay. The high value they placed on their 
meadows was owing to the fact that they had little or no up- 
land grass, and salt hay furnished the most available winter 
fodder for their stock. 

Most of the lands became vested in individuals, either by 
direct special grant from the Town, or by virtue of the divi- 
dends which were made from time to time. By the latter 
method the greater portion of the land was disposed of. The 
divisions first began near home, as land about the settlement 
was in greatest request on account of its convenience to their 
dwellings. So the Calves Neck and the lots at the North Sea and 
those in the rear of the home lots were first divided. Then, as 
the land near at hand becomes occupied and more is sought, 
there are dividends of the Cutchogue lands, of the Oysterponds 
lands, and of those at Mattituck and Aquebogue. These divi- 
dends seem to have proceeded somewhat as follows : A certain 



large tract would be concluded upon as the subject of division 
and then cut up into lots. There were several of these divi- 
dends in different localities in the town — three at Aquebogue, 
and probably two or three at least in the Oysterponds. It 
appears that the lots were of jequal size but unequally divided 
in number among the settlers. Some had three or four lots in 
the dividends, others only one. This was determined by a rule 
based on the proportion which each had contributed towards 
defraying the general expenses of the settlement. Barnabas 
Horton, who came here with a fuller purse than most of the 
other settlers, had a larger number of lots in most of the divi- 
dends than the majority. 

Thomas Mapes seems to have done most of the surveying of 
these lots, although John Tuthill is sometimes mentioned in 
that connection. We know not how they measured, or what 
rude instruments they had to work w'ith, yet the boundary lines 
they run, often stretching long distances through the woods, 
and which in some instances have been preserved as boundary 
lines to this day, are notably straight. Taking into view the 
large area of the lands they divided, and the smallness of the 
parcels which were in many cases allotted, we conclude that 
Mr. Thomas Mapes must have been overrun with surveying 
business during the 'greater part of his life here. The maps 
and surveys he made, and which are alluded to in the records, 
are lost. \ 

The Indian names of localities were adcTpted to a great ex- 
tent, and are still perpetuated by daily use. Mattituck, 
Peconic, Cutchogue and Arshamomogue are familiar illustra- 
tions. Many, however, are obsolete. Yennacock, the general 
name of the town, is almost forgotten. How few know where 
Pequashneck and the Pisapunk Meadows laj^, although they 
are frequently mentioned in the records. Yet our fathers in 
their local nomenclature often resorted to their own English 
tongue. Our Mill Creek they called Tom's Creek. Long 
Island Sound was known by the name of the North Sea. 

Poole's Neck is now the farm of Henry L. Fleet at Cutch- 
ogue ; Robin's Island Neck is the site of New Suffolk ; Pea- 



9- 

ken's Neck is now Great Island in Mill Creek, and was named 
from John Peaken, one of its first owners; the Hog Ponds, or 
Hogsty Neck, and Eagle Neck were at the Oysterponds; 
Fort Neck was at Cutchogue, and is now the farm of John 
Downs. It took its name from an old fort standing thereon. 
Sterling Harbor, sometimes called Winter Harbor, retained the 
first of those names down to a time within the memory of men 
yet living. Many of these local names have never been drop- 
ped. Calves Neck^ Goose Creek, Robin's Island, Pine and 
Hog Necks, Plum Gut, Peter's Neck, Long Beach and South 
Harbor are well known names at this day. 

One word the settlers used which is n©t found in Webster, 
and yet we think it is still sometimes heard among our farmers. 
It is the term, a spang of meadow, and means a neck or small 
piece of meadow jutting out into a creek. 

Their spelling of proper names was uncertain and change- 
able. One Abraham Whitier was among the early settlers, yet 
his surname is spelled in so many different ways one can hardly 
count the variations. Sometimes the name of Budd is spelled 
with one d ; Youngs is sometimes Yongs, and Benjamin Youngs, 
for many years Recorder of the Town, almost habitually sio-ned 
his name " Benj Yo," as if the duties of his office had 
made writing a wearisome task. The Corwin's came from 
Mathias, their first ancestor here, whose name used to be 
written Curwin. The Wines's wrote their name with a y in- 
stead of an i. So did the Skidmores, but the Ryders reversed 
the rule. Quite a number of the settlers lacked the ability to 
write their names. 

We judge that tobacco must have been numbered among 
their crops. The Tobacco Houses at Oyster Ponds are several 
times mentioned, and they stood in that beautiful and fertile 
plain through which Orchard Street now runs, and the fields 
thereabouts were called the Tobacco Grounds. 

Early in their history mills were erected. There was one at 
Mill Creek, which stood somewhere between the present Rail- 
road Bnd highway bridges. Soon also there was a windmill on 



the hill at the West end of the Town, and another at Town 
Harbor. 

The title of many thousand dollars worth of valuable real 
estate in Greenport, lying East of Main Street, probably runs 
back to the grant to John Youngs, mentioned and recorded as 
follows : " One parcel of woodland, lying on the West side 
of Starling Harbor, at the poynt thereof, being about thirtie or 
fortie acres given him by the General Court at New Haven, in 
May, one thousand, six hundred fortie nine, and sythence 
converted to a farm." 

About where is now the East line of the farm late of Jere- 
miah King, deceased, stood the General Fence, so called, run- 
ning from the Sound to the head of Sterling Creek. The 
Oysterponds upper and lower neck were used by the people to 
pasture their cattle and hogs, in the same way that Montauk is 
still pastured ; each proprietor putting in so many animals as 
his proportion of lands East of the fence entitled him to. Per- 
haps I should say here that what is now East Marion consti- 
tuted the Upper Oysterpond Neck, and what is East of the mill 
pond was the Lower Neck. 

With all their plainness of life the settlers were not proof 
against vanity of titles, and military rank carried muchjmport- 
ance and honor with it. John Booth was an ensign, and his 
name goes in the records as Ensign Booth. John Budd was 
known as Lieutenant Budd, from the office he held in the Town 
force. Quite as often, too, he took the title of captain, from 
his having commanded a vessel. The notorious Captain John 
Underbill had a home lot here. His title was not obtained by 
sinecure service. He had served in Holland, and perhaps in 
Spain. He came over with Governor Winthrop, of Massa- 
chusetts, as a military officer ; was captain of a company at 
Boston ; was sent to arrest Roger Williams, but failed therein j 
was captain of a company on Block Island ; engaged in the 
Pequot war ; fought with the Dutch and English against the 
Indians; was at the capture of New York in 1664. Fighting 
was his trade, and his services were in constant requisition here 
and there throughout the colonies. His public reputation is 



t 

II. 



wider by far than that of any of the other settlers. John 
Youngs was a colonel of militia in 1693 ; his force numbering 
9 companies, 533 men ; Charles Glover and John 'I'ucker were 
military captains. 

The title Goodman often occurs. Thus we have Goodman 
Hallock, Horton and Furrier. The distinction indicated vener- 
able age and the particular esteem and respect of neighbors. 

In many of the deeds the occupation of the parties is given 
Most are given as yeomen, planters, or husbandmen. Quite a 
number were mariners, of whom were: Thomas Weatherly, 
Matthew Sinderland, Thomas Moore, John Herbert, Ralph 
Goldsmith, Symon Moore. 

Many of the common trades were practised here at the first. 
Jeremiah Vail, Thomas Tusten and William Salmon were black- 
smiths ; Richard Jackson and Joshua Horton carpenters; 
Abraham Whitier, Samuel Glover and Richard Clark were 
shipwrights; John Corey and Jacob Corey were weavers; 
James Haines and Samuel King coopers; John Franklin a 
cordwainer, and Lott Johnson a glover. 

Vessels were owned here along at the very first, and the sea 
then as now contributed to the material welfare of the Town. 
Voyages were made to the West Indies. Town Creek was 
deeper than now, and near its head was a wharf. Among the 
hodge podge pertaining to all sorts of private business put 
upon record is a Bill of Lading. Our interest lies so much to- 
day in maritime matters that I copy this old writing, as a matter 
of curious comparison with those forms in use to-day. It reads: 
" Shipped by the grace of God in good order and well condi- 
tioned by'Mr. Jonas Wood of Southold, in and upon the good 
ship called the Mary and Margaret of Southold, in New En- 
gland, whereof is master under God for this present voyage Mr. 
Joseph Youngs, now riding at anchor in Southhold Kay and by 
God's grace bound for the Barbadoes, to say Ten barrells of beef 
being marked as in the margin, 7 barrells marked f. o., three burnt 
marks upon the head, three barrells marked f. 4, tw^o burnt marks 
upon the head, all other marks not regarded, and are to' be 
delivered in the like good order and well conditioned at the 



13. 

aforesaid port of Barbadoes, the danger of the seas only ex- 
cepted unto Captain Timothy Crouther or to his assigns, he or 
they paying freight for the said goods after four pounds the 
tunn with primage and average accustomed. In witness where- 
of the master or purser of the said ship hath affirmed to her 
bills of lading, all of this tenour and date the one of wch her 
bills being accomplished the other to stand void. And that 
God shall send the good ship to her destined port in safety. 
Amen. Dated in Southold the 24 November, 1656, outwardly 
all conditioned inwardly I know not, the hopes are in last." 

Isaac Arnold had his warehouse at the head of the creek, and 
was the only merchant here. His vessels traded to the West 
Indies. Our exports then were staves, beeves, hides and tal- 
low; our imports molasses and sugar. The ships, as they then 
called them, were one masted vessels of from thirty to forty 
tons burden. Such was the Thomas and John — a ketch or bill 
of sale to Mr. Arnold of 1-8 part of which vessel is recorded. 

The Indians were kindly treated by the settlers, and recipro- 
cated the kindness shown them. They sold their lands and 
were paid for them. As a rule they never caused any serious 
disturbances, were peaceful in their demeanor, and beyond 
poaching and petty thefts, and gave little trouble. Occasion- 
ally they killed a beef, and their dogs were of prowling, pre^ 
datory habits. So it was ordered lawful for any inhabitant 
finding any Indian with any gun or bows and arrows or dogs 
anywhere between Arshamomogue and Plum Gut to detain and 
bring him before the proper authorities. This proceeded from 
the fear of loss among their cattle and swine then pasturing. 

The ecclesiastical history of the Town merits more than the 
passing notice we are forced to content ourselves with. A 
house of worship was erected at the start, and stood a. few rods 
West of the present Presbyterian Church. It remained there till 
1684 when it was converted into a jail. The parish bounds ran 
for more than half a century from Plum Gut West to the Wading 
River. The minister's salary was a town charge, and their re- 
ceipts to the constables 'are of record. 

The old first bounds of Southold were from Mill Creek to the 




^3- 

Fresh Meadows at Cutchogue, where Thomas Golden now 
lives. Soon, under titles from the Indians, the bounds were 
extended. 

The Town Patent from Andrews, which will be two hundred 
years old October 31st, next, described the territory of the 
personal and property rights were better protected in Southold 
in the early settlement than in any other spot in the world. 
They were men of excellently sound minds, and however else 
we may judge them, we must concede that they had sterling 
good sense and wise judgment. 

Time commands us to advance our story now with more rapid 
step. Leaving the early settlement days let us halt, first to see 
how Southold bears the weight of a hundred years of age. We 
find in 1740 that many wild lands have been reclaimed, and 
well cultivated farms occupy a large part of her surface. Her pop- 
ulation has increased several fold ; villages, hamlets and homes 
are thickly scattered from the Wading River to Plum Gut. 

New names have come in ; some of them are of leading 
townsmen. Samuel Landon is the Supervisor, and for two 
generations after him the family name was potent in our Town 
affairs. Year after year Elijah Hutchinson sits as Moderator 
in Town Meeting, and his large landed estates number hun- 
dreds of acres. Then Joshua Wells and James Fanning re- 
spectively are chief officers of the Town for several years. In 
1767 Major Parker Wickham, rich in lands and high in the 
Town councils, began his long administration. During the 
middle of the last century there is little of special interest in 
our Town history. Votes are taken concerning the care of the 
poor, the keeping up of the highways, the regulation of cattle, 
and the internal affairs of the Town ran on with a quiet mon- 
otony. 

Territorially we were far removed from the French and 
Indian wars. We were, however, represented in them. Cap- 
tain Joseph Conklin, of Arshamomogue, had command of a 
company at Fort Edward in 1756, where hejhad Southold men 
with him. Peter Paine, Joel Reeve and Thomas Osborn, of 
Southold, died there in the summer of that year, and others 
from the Hampton towns. ' 



14- 




When we come to the Revolutionary War we find the Town 7 
deeply interested in the struggle between the colonies and the / 
mother country. Our business relations with the New England^ 
Town substantially thus : West by the Wading River ; North by 
the Sound ; East by and including Plum Island ; South by the 
bay going westerly as far as Red Creek, then on a straight line 
from the head of said creek to the brook at Wading River, near 
where the mill stands at present. The Town of Riverhead was 
formed therefrom in 1792. Shelter Island seems also to have 
ubmitted itself to our Town authority until 1730. 

In 1648 the Town became a recognized member in the courts 
of the New Haven Colony. In 1662 that colony united with 
Connecticut Colony. In 1664 we came under the authority of 
New York. 1673, the Dutch took New York, but Southold re- 
sisted the change and acknowledged allegiance to Connecticut 
once more; 1674, the English again possessed New York, and 
Southold reluctantly came under that colony the second time. 

All these changes of their chief government were of serious 
importance to their affairs in the minds of the settlers, and for 
a number of years they made vigorous endeavors to establish a 
permanent connection with the Connecticut Colony, whose 
principles, laws and people were more in accord with their 
views than those of New York. But we have not time to dwell 
on these various changes of colonial jurisdiction, although they 
are of the highest historical moment. 

We close this hurried glance at the early days of the settle- 
ment with a few words of general description of the settlers. 
Of course they had all the frailties of the natural man. We 
know that there were private contentions among them ; that 
they were wilful and ultra and arbitrary in matters of con- 
science. With these faults we can count up a long list of vir- 
tuse. They were moral in their lives, sternly religious in their 
belief and practice, assiduously industrious in their labors, pru- 
dent in all things, and of unselfish devotion to the needs of 
their settlement. If their religion was austere yet its funda- 
mental principles have made and preserved the nation ; if their 
laws and local regulations were sometimes trivial and illiberal 
yet the great bulk of the rules they made for their government 



15- 

aimed at and accomplished justice. For their day and gener 
ation they ruled their affairs wonderfully well. We believe that 
colonies were intimate and harmonious. Their grievances were 
ours, and Southold gave its hearty sympathy to the cause of 
Independence. Like the New Englanders our fathers were of 
Puritan stock, and loyal to the King while he ruled them justly. 
On the other hand, they were,earnest in their hatred of oppress- 
ion, and stubborn in their devotion to their rights. Southold 
Town was as devoted to the cause of American Independence 
as Massachusetts Colony. There were few Tories in the I'own, 
and they were such rather from conservatism, or from a lack of 
faith in the successful establishment of a new and independent 
nation than because they thought " the King could do no 
•wrong." 

A company of minute men was formed in 1775, and on the 
27th of November of that year Lieutenant Moses Case took his 
commission as Captain. He, like many others of his neigh- 
bors, wrote with chalk, in large letters, on his hat the words, 
*' Liberty or Death." 

In '76 Southold had two companies of minute men — Paul 
Keeve and Jonathan Bailey captains. They belonged to Col- 
onel Josiah Smith's Suffolk County Regiment, which was at 
Brooklyn August 29th, '76. This was the date of Washington's 
retreat from Long Island, but we think that the regiment had 
not been engaged in the battle. The regiment then disbanded; 
Colonel Smith giving leave for every man to shift for himself 
in getting their families and effects off safe. In September 
Southold met to take the oath of British allegiance, by order of 
Colonel Phineas Fanning. Through the war many sought re- 
fuge from the British at Lyme, Branford, Saybrook, New Lon- 
don, and other Connecticut towns. There many of the refugees 
became destitute and unable to support their families, and they 
were constantly sending petitions to the British at New York 
for permission to return. 

The position of the Town during the war was one of peculiar 
embarrassment. The British had possession of the Island, and 
our people were subjected to frequent insults, indignities and 



1 6. 

losses of property. In these ways they oftentimes suffered at 
the hands of the English soldiers. Again, their long water 
front made them the prey of predatory parties who robbed them 
of their stock and crops and found an easy and safe flight in 
boats. 

Ezra L'Hommedieu, who lived at Town Harbor, sat first in 
the Provincial Congress of New York ; afterwards in the Conti- 
nental Congress from 1779 to 1783. He was a decided and 
active patriot. Mr. L'Hommedieu bore a more prominent part 
in the councils of the nation than any other man that has ever 
lived among us. 

During the last hundred years great changes have taken 
place in the Town. Social customs and all the conveniencies 
of life, civil and religious institutions, agriculture and the 
trades, the means of travel and communication, vessels, houses, 
lands have all been subject to such radical changes that we can 
hardly imagine them as they were in 1776. This beautiful vil- 
lage, teeming with an active, busy people, with its thrifty indus- 
tries, its varied businesses, its extensive maritime interests, is 
the product of the last 50 years. It would be a pleasant task to 
rehearse these various changes, but time forbids, and my story 
is ended. 

I have given it to you without the least pretension to a full or 
adequate treatment of the subject. Mine is only a little frag- 
ment of a long and copious history, whose salient features are 
worthy subjects of our gratitude and pride. Truly we have a 
right to be proud of our ancestors ; of those honest, brave 
hearted, clear headed men who came here and occupied this 
pleasant arm of land — this jewel, which nature has made so 
lovely in its setting, so precious in its valuable qualities of soil 
and climate. In 1640 it was a wilderness — to-day it is almost 
a garden spot. Southold settlement was poor and feeble in its 
infancy; Southold Town in its old age is rich and vigorous. 
Her sons rejoice and are happy in her strength and beauty, her 
fair and honest name. Thanks forever and ever to our fathers 
who came here, lived out their industrious, honest lives, and 
dying transmitted to us, their children, so fair a heritage for 
our home. 




,0* yjy^. 



•" .•?> 





v'' ..•: 



*^^^' 








.^•^-^^ 











J?-^*.. 




^-^ ., 



• ' • «-► 



^^ 'o • » * A 



•' .*'\ 














.0* ..--./^O "■ -^^ 











0" ♦ 




"oV' 












'\<^ 







it V ^^ - • * 






.•1°* 







jP-nj., V 












=*. 






.*'' . 



,v ■^^^.^*'' ,'i<^i'A'» •^*..** /i 












j5^^ «i 













.» i.°-nK V 















l«' 













«. c** / 



. °^W' ** % \^K-' .«^'X "-^P-* **% '.| 



-^^d* 
.4'°- 









■5''\ 













